Man avoids jail after indecent images of children found on his laptop

John Cranswick, 73, has been jailed for sharing indecent pictures of children with other paedophiles. (Image: Dominic Lipinski/PA Wire)

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A man has been given a suspended jail sentence after indecent images of children were found on his laptop.

Leeds Crown Court heard yesterday (Tues) as a result of intelligence received about an image uploaded on to a Facebook page on December 28 last year a search warrant was executed at the Huddersfield flat of Ian David French on July 15 this year.

John Bull, prosecuting, said an Acer laptop was seized and examination revealed seven indecent images of children at Category A, the most serious, 16 at Category B and 44 Category C.

The police also recovered 63 prohibited images of children and three of extreme pornography.

French was interviewed and accepted uploading the indecent image of a child to a Facebook account he used in a fictitious name saying he did not know why he had done that.

Jessica Randell, representing him, said that one image shared was a cartoon and it had only been to one person in a private Facebook conversation “between two adults who had previously shared legal links to pornography.”

She said French had previously been an entrepreneur who was a project manager in a nightclub. He was a regular body builder working out in a gym but then suffered a serious shoulder injury which had led to osteoarthritis.

Leeds Crown Court

He had not been able to work and was taking prescribed painkillers and cortisone injections and because he was no longer able to train put on “large amounts of weight.”

That had hit his self-confidence and he had become a recluse in his own home shutting out friends and family. He had looked on his laptop at teenage porn and that escalated but when he realised what he was doing he had deleted the images.

She said the only item not deleted was the cartoon. He had now sought help for depression from his GP and was addressing his other problems. His shoulder had been reconstructed in an operation and he had already lost two stone in weight.

Ms Randell added: “He is full of remorse and ashamed about what he did.”

French, 36 of Market Place, Huddersfield, admitted three charges of making indecent images, possessing prohibited and extreme images and one of distribution. He was sentenced to a total of eight months in prison suspended for 18 months with a 30 day rehabilitation activity requirement.

Judge Penelope Belcher told him the offences were serious because the children pictured had actually been abused so he and others could look at the images.